Green Tech Update - August 23, 2024
Photovoltaic cells, an Italian physicist, and an American inventor
Italian physicist Alessandro Volta had not studied at a university, but he worked on electricity research with individual scientists. In 1800, at age 55, he announced his invention, the Voltaic Pile. It is generally understood to be the world’s first battery. The term photovoltaic–conversion from light to electricity–is named after him.
Later in the same century, an American inventor created solar panels, which were made of components called photovoltaic cells, now commonly referred to as solar cells. On a New York City rooftop in 1884, these solar panels generated electricity from sunlight for the first time. Charles Fritts installed the panels in a flat grid formation, a couple of feet above the roof’s surface on one wide platform. And they worked.
Fritts said of the panels’ current, “[it] is continuous, constant and of considerable force not only by exposure to sunlight but also to dim, diffused daylight.” He wanted his solar cells to compete with Edison’s coal-fired power plants. But they were not efficient enough at converting sunlight to electricity. While innovative, the panels didn’t catch on.
John Perlin, author and solar advocate, wrote about Fritts in his book, Let It Shine: The 6000 Year Story of Solar Energy. Perlin notes that while there was excitement about Fritts’ work, it didn’t generate the power that was hoped for to reduce pollution from steam trains. But it served as the prototype for later solar panels that used different surface materials to be more effective.
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Notes:
Photovoltaic cells:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/brief-history-solar-panels-180972006/
https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/alessandro-volta
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/solar/photovoltaics-and-electricity.php
https://www.aps.org/apsnews/2009/04/bell-labs-silicon-solar-cell